Enjoy a Dr. Beach pick with budget-friendly Coronado stay

If Hanalei Bay in Kauai — the No. 1 stretch of sand on Dr. Beach’s 2009 list — is feeling about as accessible to you as Shangri-La, you don’t have to move too much further down the list to find a gem in our own Southern California.

Holding the No. 4 spot (up from No. 5 last year), Coronado Beach is a “veritable oasis by the sea,” according to the good doctor, who is actually coastal expert Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research.

To fully enjoy the resort isle and its gorgeous beach, you’ll want to stay more than a day. The Hotel del Coronado wins for beachfront location and fascinating history, but it’s not one of the most budget-friendly accommodation values around. For two days in early June, I found I’d be paying $588 total for two nights in the lowest-price-level room, and that doesn’t include the $25 charge per day to self-park.

Instead, I suggest saving the Hotel Del for an afternoon’s wander and staying somewhere like the Glorietta Bay Inn, right across the street and “housed in an Italian Renaissance mansion.”

Deal: Book online for a stay June 1 through 15, and you’ll pay $159 and up (pretax). This amounts to just $344 for two days after taxes. There’s no extra resort fee, but parking will cost you $10 per night. If you book over the phone, request the “Internet special” rate.

Contact: Glorietta Bay Inn, (800) 283-9383

- Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photos: Top, Coronado Beach, Associated Press; bottom, Glorietta Bay Inn]

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 7:01 am by Susan Derby and is filed under California, Deals, Family & Kids, Hotels, Islands & Beaches, San Diego. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.